It's not dull at The Den

Watching Millwall may not be every supporter's idea of fun, but there cannot be too many games at The Den which are boring.

The intimidating, partisan atmosphere their fans create at home probably means the experience is not one for the neutral or the easily-offended.

But if a newcomer to the ground can take sides and immerse themselves in the game, they should witness some drama at the very least.

Last night's duel at The Den was between two teams with well- founded hopes of promotion and included both managers - Mark McGhee and Birmingham's Steve Bruce - being sent to the stands by referee Phil Dowd.

There was also the secondhalf dismissal of City substitute Curtis Woodhouse for a serious foul on David Livermore, a goal-of-the-month contender from his teammate Tommy Mooney and some thrilling attacking football from both sides.

It is just a shame that the event had to be marred by idiots who pelted one of the linesmen, Phil Barston, with plastic bottles and half a meat pie just eight minutes after kick-off as well.

If that could be forgotten for a minute - which is a tough request in a week when serious crowd trouble erupted in and around games at Cardiff and Chelsea - it was an eventful contest which should be recorded.

The home side dominated the first half and for the first 25 minutes were camped in the Birmingham half.

In that time Livermore had a reasonable claim for a penalty refused, Neil Harris's shot after a mazy run in the penalty area was saved by keeper Ian Bennett and then cleared off the line by David Burrows and Steve Claridge had a good shot saved.

But Birmingham held out and scored at the end of the first period in injury time, which was created by the linesman pelting incident.

Former Watford player Mooney crashed a free-kick into the Millwall wall before hitting the rebound from 25-yards first time and into the top corner past Tony Warner.

The atmosphere and the apparent injustice of the goal was too much for McGhee, who should be used to what happens at The Den by now, and he let fly at fourth official Bill Jordan in the players' tunnel.

The Scot said: "I just lost it, I didn't think we should have lost a goal. I was not particularly aggrieved about anything but I was asked to sit in the stand for the second half. I should have just shouted at the players - which I did as well - and I want to apologise to the official for losing the plot."

His suggested watching from the stand will not be in Dowd's match report and neither will the advice given to Bruce to leave his dugout on 70 minutes, so both should avoid further punishment.

The former Crystal Palace manager, who ended up a few seats down from McGhee, was unrepentant anyway.

He exchanged a few choice words with officials after Woodhouse's red card for what he claimed was a "fair" tackle and claimed the player had suffered from The Den experience.

Bruce said: "You expect it's going to be a good atmosphere and a decent place to play when you come here. Unfortunately, when it influences certain people, we find ourselves down to 10 men."

This all happened in a twominute period and after a flurry of substitutions, one of the fresh Millwall players, Christophe Kinet, took the free-kick for the foul which had started the rumpus.

It reached Sean Dyche at the far post and his powerful header was parried by Bennett, but not enough to stop it from going in for the equaliser. A fair result.